For most people, Twitter is a social platform. I mean, it is a *social* media. We catch up with friends, check up on the news and then make memes and dumb jokes. For me, though, it’s become more than that: it’s become a puzzle to figure out, an art to master, something that I both love and mildly dislike sometimes. Today, I want to share what I’ve learned about Twitter and how you can best utilize it to grow your blog or business. Let’s begin….

Starter

Shorthand Glossary

DM – Direct Message: a private message between 2+ people

F – Follow

FF – Follow Friday: on Fridays, people will list Twitter users to follow

F4F – Follow for Follow: a request for you to follow someone in exchange for them to follow you back

ICYMI – In Case You Missed It

QT – Quote Tweet: like a retweet, except you also add at least a word or phrase in response

RT – Retweet: when you share another person’s tweet

TL – Timeline: all the tweets of people you follow

TL;DR – Too Long Didn’t Read: the short version of the story

What To Put On Your Profile

Picture: of you or your blog/business logo

Header: of your blog/business name, or, of the names of your social media handles

Bio: some keywords that describe you

Link: to your blog or business

If you have multiple blogs or businesses to link to, feel free to put them in your Twitter bio (I do)

Benefits & Drawbacks of Twitter

Benefits

Countless friends – over the course of my time on Twitter, I’ve talked to a ton of awesome authors and met some amazing bloggers who are now my best friends! We have a DM group for ourselves where we talk about life and blogs. It really helps to have people to go to for help on ideas and general support. Friendships take time, though, so you might not get there immediately but, the more you connect with people, the more likely it will happen.

Amazing opportunities – Twitter is an amazing way to make those first connections and network with a bunch of authors, publishers and fellow bloggers which can lead to reviews, interviews, blog tours, street teams, guest posts and more!

Drawbacks

It can be overwhelming and/or addictive. Just like any other social media, it can be easy to turn Twitter into your whole life and think of it as just another numbers game. Coming from experience, that is sooooo unhealthy both mentally and emotionally. For me, I first deleted Twitter off my phone and that helped a ton in getting me to be more productive offline. Also, when I need to work and know I can get distracted, I also log out of Twitter on my computer. It’s not the best line of defense for everyone, but, now, it means there’s an extra step I have to take to get onto the platform, which gives me more time to realize I shouldn’t be on it lol

There are trolls, bots, and fake people on Twitter who want to use you only for promo or wait for you to make a mistake so they can sabotage you. It can be scary. In my experience, some good things to do to help protect you is to

Check people’s information against reliable sources so that you don’t fall for fake news

Watch what you say to people – there is a fine balance between being authentic and being too trustful. Make sure you’re not giving up too much personal information to the point that someone could use it against you.

Tips & Tricks

Follow people in your niche – if you’re a book blogger, follow a bunch of book bloggers and authors and start interacting with them! If you’re a fashion blogger, follow other fashion bloggers and fashion magazines/companies and talk to them! The idea is to immerse yourself in your related niche and get to talking to influencers and companies of all sizes (not just the big ones).

Follow other people’s followers – a good way to get more connected within your industry is to find the biggest influencers within your niche, and connect with their followers. So, if you’re in the publishing industry, check out the bloggers, YouTubers, and bookstagrammers who follow your favourite authors and publishers.

Talk to people – if you’re a blogger and/or business owner, you’ll stay stagnant if you don’t reach out and talk to other people on Twitter. The more you talk to people, the more friends you can make! It can be hard to make that first move but, honestly, just saying “hi, I love your content, especially [insert your fave thing]” is a good way to get to talking.

Don’t spam people with posts (or hashtags) – you may have joined social media to get more blog followers, views, and/or money but that doesn’t mean you should spam people with your posts and business. If you do, no one will follow you on social media, let alone see your blog or check out your business. People appreciate real people. They want to feel close to you, and they won’t be able to do that if all you post about or ask is that people check out your recent blog post or business idea.

Participate in Twitter chats (a list of them are below)– They’re a good way to meet people of all types in your niche/industry and have fun. Plus, depending on how much you interact with people, you might get a bunch of new friends and followers!

Help people and answer their questions – For example, when I was “younger” in the blogging world, I was a huge book trader as part of the Twitter booksfortrade tag. I was on it every day, 24/7. Over time, I learned the unofficial rules and etiquette and tips and anything you could pretty much know about the tag. So I made not one but TWO blog posts about it to help share the answers and shared it to social media. But I didn’t stop there. Because I was a young trader once, and because I loveeee questions, I wanted to help other people. So when people asked questions on the tag, I helped. Genuinely helped. Answered people’s questions then added my blog post at the end and opened my DMs to them if they had more questions. In the end, not because I was looking for it, I got followers. And friends. This isn’t me bragging. It’s me saying to genuinely help people, period. Be careful, though, because people can tell when you are helping to help vs helping to get followers. So help freely, without want.

Schedule out professional/promo tweets every day in between convos and interacting with other people – a list of some scheduling apps are below. If you don’t tweet non-business/blog things often – aka less than 20 tweets over the entire day -, two or three should be the max. If you tweet a medium amount – aka 20 to 49 tweets over the entire day -, four to five should be the max. If you tweet a lot – aka over 50 tweets over the entire day – then you can decide how often to promote, but make sure it’s proportionate to how much you tweet. If you tweet 50 tweets a day, don’t do another 50 tweets of promo. Again, be mindful that you don’t spam people.

Add at least one image to your promo tweets – in a sea of wordy tweets, graphics catch people’s eyes much faster which gives you more of a chance for people to actually look at what you have to say.

Aaaand that’s all for the major aspects of Twitter! Anyways, yay, we Leveled Up!! Now, what do you think about Twitter? Has it helped you at all, if you have it? Also, do you know of any other Twitter chats (bookish or not)?Let me know in the comments below and I’ll make sure to answer! Feel free to also share the post(s)!

And, if you have any questions now or at any point in the Level Up series or if there’s something you generally or specifically want me to talk about, feel free to comment below, tweet me @AvidReaderBlog, or email me at avidreaderofficial@gmail.com! Thanks, have a great day/night, and tata for now!